Ms Caroline Bocquel:

There is the funding that is provided by BIM, which comes through our parent Department and the Minister. That is the seafood development fund, which is very significant. It is one of the most generous development funds. Most grants are offered at 50% grant rate, which is one of the most generous grant aids in the entire public sector. However, there is also another tool that some of our companies are now availing of and it is very powerful. It is the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund, which is the State's funding arm, really, through the National Treasury Management Agency. It has a team that is focused on food and very focused on marine and providing very good loans or taking equity in companies to really help them to scale up rapidly. It has made some very significant investments over the last two years and is actively looking for investments at the moment and speaking to quite a few of our larger companies to see how it can help to get that scale at pace. The grant aid will never do that. The grant aid will seed it but it will not help them to grow at the speed they need to grow. The Ireland Strategic Investment Fund is very interested in stepping in and providing that sort of support for companies, and we work with it very closely.